seasonic s12 problems

I have a s12-500w and have been experiencing increasing issues with it. After I had my 1st dodgy a8n-sli premium board it began tripping for several hours at a time. Eventually with the new board it would turn on after several hours left unplugged. That wasn't so much of a concern as once it was on it would be left on for several days in a row with no issues.

However lately my 2x 200gb pata seagate 7200.7 have been powering down whilst the system is on forcing a reboot of and not being detected on the reboot. I have had the same issue with my 120gb wd sata boot drive.

Sounds like i need to rma it. However i bought it from xcase when no other retailer in the uk stocked them and i'm not sure how good their rma service is. Secondly I need to purchase a quiet and cheap psu that will power my rig whilst this psu is being rmaed. I'm in the 3rd year of my degree so i cannot afford to have my system unusable.

So to summarise - do i definitely need to rma this seasonic and what is xcase's rma service like? Also what would be a cheap quiet psu that will unfortunately be a spare when the seasonic is returned?

I would love to just go out and buy another seasonic but this is a temporary solution that will probably spend most of its life in a cupboard. I have limited funds and the s12s, particularly the 500w are pretty pricey.

I was wondering whether the 500w fortron blue storm or a 430w tagan easycon might do the job whilst providing a stable system and being quiet. Like you I bought the seasonic for it's quietness.

edit: Does anyone know if there is a direct rma contact number for seasonic in the uk? I haven't been able to find one.

I have an older 420W Tagen with dual fans, i have to practically rub my ear against the fan blades to hear anything. I don't know what the easycon's 120mm fan is like for noise, but it should hardly be noticeable either. Indeed the Tagen could just replace the seasonic altogether.. 430W is more than enough for your system.

Originally Posted by Agent

...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

Thanks for the replies aidanjt, i have to admit the tagan is the front runner on the list. I bought the s12-500 knowing it was overkill but figured that it was better to have separate pci-e connectors and that it would last through a large number of upgrades. *sigh*